Social media ROI

Of course, when undertaking any sort of marketing a business is going to want the outcome to be direct sales. However, with social media this isn’t always the case and its notoriously difficult to measure your ROI.

A lot of social media folk (gurus!) will tell you that social media is about brand building. I would be inclined to agree. Social media is more about promoting your brand than it is about advertising your products and services. Having a social media presence can really give potential customers an insight into how you operate.

If they feel some sort of rapport with you then they are more likely to buy in the future. They might not buy directly from that tracked link to a product page you posted but they’ll more more likely to consider your brand over a competitor when they need that product or service.

A good presence on social media also gives you the chance for your product or brand to go viral. This might not be something huge but even if one customer tells a few friends about a recent marketing plan then you have done something right.

How to measure social media ROI

There are a few ways to track your return on investment when it comes to social media.

Voucher codes – This is a simple way to measure who is buying and from where. For example, if you are offering 10% off your products or services then have a code for each form a social media you use. I.e. TWITTER10, FACEBOOK10 and PINTEREST10. You can see how many people use these codes to work out which of your social media stretegies are working and how many customers come from each. Make sure the codes can’t be used together, though.

Tracked links – If you can send customers to a certain part of your site that is only accessible from a link you give out then you can track how many people visit and buy using that path through your website. Google Analytics is a great tool for measuring who comes from where. You can specifically tell Google Analytics to look at the confirmation page after a customer purchases something. It’ll then tell you how they arrived at your website.

Surveys – A simple way to measure where you sales are coming from is to ask your customers, this can be as simple as a ‘how did you heard about us?’ question on the checkout page. If you sell services or don’t sell online then you can still ask your clients where they heard about you.